Valley Unit: Whilworlh Fumes, BIA Admits Mistake
Tribal Councilman Fred Whitworth calls the first year's cutting the the Valley Logging Unit "an outrage" and asks for closer Council control over the reservation forestry program.
Arlee: "This is an outrage, a damned outrage," Tribal Councilman Fred Whitworth, Arlee, muttered as he picked his way between the slush of honeycombed roads and slash from fallen trees.
"This" was the Valley logging Unit, 3 6,3 26 acres of timbered hills which trace the southern reservation boundary between Dixon and Arlee. The 81.3 mil-Lion board feet of the unit were sold last January to the Van Evan Company of Missoula for $4,9 21 ,339. The contract for the Valley's timber will run 8 years.
Cutting in the Valley Unit began last March but there had been some misgiving about the way the timber was to be harvested. Whitworth, who has a cattle ranch just below the lower boundaries of the cutting area, lias been critical of the Valley
Mission
Creek
Vanishes
MISSION CREEK DRIED UP TO A TRICKLE EARLIER THIS MONTH.
St. Ignatius: During the first week of February, a lot of people who live along Mission Creek noticed something was missing ....Mission Creek.
That's right. For about five days, from February 6 to Feb-rurary 11 there was hardly any flow at all through St. Ignatius and for a few days even the upper creek was just wet enough to gtaze the rocks.
A dried up creek is a serious thing. People along the creek rely on it for a great number of things from mood to winter stock water and fish and aquatic animals rely on it for their very lives. Last May the Reservation Ranger attempted to restore the fisheries in the creek by planting 7,700 fingerling trout. According to Reservation Fisheries Ranger, Dave Harriman, these fish, which had (cont. on r»a?e 16 )
Unit sale since it was proposed in the fall of 19 7 2 . He voted against accepting the contract on the largest single timber sale in the history of the reservation because, as he told the Council
then, "We don't know what a high-volume, long term project like this is going to do to our game range and water shed". Voting against the sale with Whitworth when it was offered
to the Council on Jan. 19,19 73 were Councilmen Pat Lefthand, Elmo, and Tom "Bearhead" Swaney, St. Ignatius. However, the contract was approved 7 to
** (cont. on page 6)
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